Polymarket has dismissed Matthew Modabber, its chief marketing officer since January 2024, according to a report from The New York Post. Sources reportedly told the Post that the prediction market platform ended his employment after an internal probe into several embarrassing episodes that alarmed investors. One insider said Polymarket is finalizing a separation agreement and that both sides have maintained mutual respect. Neither Polymarket nor Modabber has made a public statement about the dismissal.

The review centered on a Wall Street Journal exposé from June. The Journal reported that Modabber’s team built a fake webpage to promote videos of users making money on phony trades. Some online creators had posted clips that falsely showed customers winning about $1.9 million on the platform, and the videos formed part of a wider push to attract new users.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened an investigation into the matter. That inquiry continues, and no wrongdoing has been established. Polymarket told the Journal at the time it was “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets,” and said it planned a comprehensive audit of its active promotional content.

The probe also looked at money flowing through Modabber’s personal PayPal account. A Politico investigation reportedly found more than $2.5 million in payments sent to over 800 recipients between January 2025 and February 2026, and at least $350,000 of that reportedly went to identified influencers. The account was registered to an email for Salad House, an Italy-based salad chain Modabber co-founded. Politico reported that Modabber often paid influencers to promote Polymarket without disclosing the paid partnership.

A Friendship Complicates the Decision

Modabber has been a close ally of Shayne Coplan, the 28-year-old CEO who became the country’s youngest billionaire after Polymarket’s odds drew wide attention around the 2024 presidential election. The two attended the Beacon School in Manhattan together, and multiple sources describe them as “thick as thieves” through the company’s rapid growth. Modabber called Coplan his “dear friend” in a LinkedIn post when he joined in 2024, and he wrote “all gas, no breaks,” about the company’s trajectory.

That bond made discipline difficult. One source said Coplan was “irate” and threatened to fire members of the legal team that pushed for the dismissal, though Coplan later accepted that a split served the company. Neal Kumar leads that legal team. He joined Polymarket last year after more than eight years at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and his group had worried about Modabber’s conduct for some time.

Insiders reportedly told the Post that Modabber made impulsive decisions that became public relations problems. Over the past year, a rift grew between loyalists to Coplan and Modabber on one side and employees and investors on the other. The latter group saw Modabber as a “huge liability” who was “wreaking havoc” on the company’s attempts to “grow up.” One source put it this way: “You can only have so many crazy people at the top of a company.”

Some employees also grew wary of Modabber’s ties to internet influencers such as Clavicular, who is known for “looksmaxxing” advice. Polymarket has offered betting markets involving Clavicular, including which countries he would visit next. A video from earlier this year caught the two partying at a nightclub, and Modabber appeared to stop mid-sentence when he realized someone was recording. The Post could not learn whether that episode contributed to the firing.

The Board and the IPO Question

Polymarket’s board has four members: Coplan, crypto investor Nick Tomaino, corporate lawyer Alex Spiro and an unidentified partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Sources said the board concluded in recent weeks that Modabber was obstructing the company’s effort to shed its scrappy startup image as it eyes a possible IPO. Polymarket has issued no public statement about any IPO plans.

Investors have taken a more active role lately. A Bloomberg report this week said Founders Fund insisted last year that Polymarket strengthen its financial controls before it committed money. In August, Polymarket restructured its marketing team and brought in the founder of e-scooter startup Bird to lead it, which one insider described as effectively a demotion for Modabber.

Modabber’s LinkedIn page calls him “employee #11” and credits him with lifting daily volume from $300,000 to “mid 9-figure daily volume via digital growth hacks”. It also says he “Built and led a 50+ person team across marketing, partnerships, and growth.” 

Polymarket was prohibited from serving U.S. customers in January 2022 after settling allegations that it operated an unregistered derivatives trading platform. The company later regained access to the U.S. market by acquiring CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange and clearinghouse QCX.